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During the last year a new type of app has been popping up all over the mobile world.  These so-called “check-in” apps allow users to notify friends and colleagues about where they have been, where they are, or where they are going via their smartphone user interfaces.  App developers have also begun to use extant location-based social networks — such as Friendticker, Foursquare, MyTown, BrightLite, Gowalla and, most recently, Facebook Places — to create games, challenges, city guides and dating services all centered on user locations.
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Taking a page out of Greek mythology

Many users have complained about the iPad’s dearth of calling power.  Of course, phone calls CAN be made via the iPad’s user interface (Skype etc.) but the iPad does not provide the same VoIP services as the Galaxy.  So users may be right to complain.  It seems only logical to expect tablets to provide the combined services of computers and mobile phones. Otherwise, tablets may seem like oversized smartphones or awkward, undersized laptops. What is the point of buying a tablet that doesn’t truly do it all?  The Galaxy claims it CAN do it all, and thus is a technological Chimera sent to serve all of our daily needs in one very small package.  Of course don’t get too excited—a chimera is also synonymous with impossible or foolish fantasies, the Galaxy very well could be too good to be true.

The Samsung Galaxy tablet, set to hit the European consumer market in late autumn 2010, is the newest brave and ambitious challenger in tablet computer combat, a battlefield thus far dominated by the iPad, known for its easy-to-use user interface design and highly-praised usability.  The Galaxy is powered by Android and “consumers are able to experience PC-like web-browsing and enjoy all forms of multimedia content on the perfectly sized 7-inch display, wherever they go. Moreover, users can continuously communicate via e-mail, voice and video call, SMS/MMS or social network with the optimized user interface” (samsungmobile.com).   Since VoIP capacities are not supported by the iPad, it is clear that Samsung sees consolidating all possible features into one device as the best strategy for taking a bite out of Apple and gaining a competitive edge in the tablet computer mêlée.  In a metaphorical sense, this method of consolidation can be seen as a Chimera effect, the Chimera being a fire-breathing female monster of Greek mythology whose body was composed of parts from different animals.   The concept of amalgamating different features into one unified body creates a stronger and more fearsome monster.  The same could be true for the Galaxy as a technological competitor.  It remains to be seen how this consolidation will affect users in terms of the usability of the user interface design.

•    Natural Colors: Natural colors can provide comfort and familiarity for users.  They can also be used to underscore the theme of your user interface.  For example, if you are designing a travel website that has pages that profile different destinations, you can use natural colors that users will associate with each place: Greens for Ireland, browns for Arizona or the Grand Canyon, etc.  Using these color palettes in tandem with images and written content will engage your users and leave your website more memorable.

•    Unnatural Colors: Using bold and bright colors is also a good strategy for distinguishing your user interface from the rest, but be judicious about it.  Too much bold can turn users off or detract their attention from important content.  Bold colors are best used when you are trying to shock users or grab their attention.  For example, if you are designing a new website you may want to have the “breaking news” section in a neon color. Or you may be creating an avant garde art website that uses all vibrant colors because you know that your users will generally be people who are interested in being challenged aesthetically.  But be careful. Unlike natural colors, unnatural colors can affect your user interface as dramatically as their hues—for good and bad.  So tread the unnatural color spectrum carefully.

Understanding how and why to use natural or unnatural colors is an important part of designing a successful user interface.   Colors enable you to craft a pleasant experience and envelope users in your interface’s ambrosial essence—design is, after all, an art form.

Color plays an integral role in our lives. Literally everything we see and do is painted in color.  Thus, the vitality and importance of color should not be forgotten when you are designing a user interface; in fact, the use of color can help distinguish your user interface from all the rest.  Using color in the right way can brighten up a drab interface design, increase its popularity with users and improve usability.  In order to use color, it is best to categorize how and why to use it.

Natural vs. Unnatural Colors

When thinking about your interface design’s color palette, it is a good idea to decide whether or not you want it to be inspired by natural colors or unnatural colors.  Natural colors are colors that occur in nature: browns, blues, greens etc.  Unnatural colors are colors that could appear in nature (most likely in a tropical rain forest) but are probably man-made or synthetic: fuchsia, hot purple, neon yellow, etc.  Put simply, earthen tones vs. bright, bold tones.

This is part two of my blog post on the new iTunes’ Ping service.

After having taken a look at the pros and cons of Ping and how it may fare in the music market, let’s see what the application itself is like.

Setting up Ping, for those with an account already, is a pretty straightforward process. A click on the Ping button in the sidebar to the left of the interface design invites users to activate their account. For a service that aims to be about music I was surprised to be limited to a choice of maximum three genres. As more and more artists take to Ping the service should become more worthwhile. One of the biggest usability gripes I have with Ping is that the only way to change the language used is to change to an iTunes store from a country that speaks the desired language. This entails creating a new account, which incidentally is a breach of the fine print in Apple’s legal terms. Considering that the most popular social networks allow users to change language at will and in one step (usually via a drop-down menu) Ping appears a bit too rigid and, dare I say, a tad patronizing.

Visually Ping is not much to look at. The interface design comes across as a bit bland. It looks like a medium-fidelity wireframe that still awaits a paint job. I feel as though Apple is reaching an impasse with how far they can keep a walled garden. Finding friends on Ping is a nightmare. The use of APIs to source contacts for friends from Facebook, Twitter, Gmail etc. would go a long way in rectifying that. What is the point of a social network if you can’t network with those you wish to? At least the security settings are very simple, occurring in one step offering from three levels. Exporting is also impossible so one can’t, for example, share a recommendation over Twitter! Personally I believe Ping is more potential than finished product and I can see the social aspect spreading to the rest of the iTunes Store.

However considering that there were a million signups in two days and the inclination of users to spend using the iTunes, Ping will certainly be profitable for Apple. I fear that a lot of people will find other services more convenient to use. With Ping Apple is clearly going against the convention of opening up social networks more.

This is part one of a blog post analyzing the repercussions of the new iTunes’ Ping service in the music market.

If Facebook’s phenomenal success can be seen as a nail in MySpace’s under-construction coffin, Apple may have just hammered yet another one in. Despite being eclipsed in numbers by the former, MySpace continues to be doing well as far as the cocktail of music leveraging social networks is concerned. The newly released iTunes 10 has decided to leverage the number of Store accounts to muscle in this already crowded territory. This “social music discovery” network, called Ping, is arguably iTunes 10’s Unique Selling Point and is integrated right into iTunes’ user interface design. The feature allows anyone with an iTunes account to “follow” bands, friends and share suggestions

Ping has been described by Steve Jobs as “Facebook and Twitter meets iTunes.” Well not quite Mr. Jobs. At the moment Ping requires the latest version of iTunes, and an account, to run. Apple could have easily used Facebook and Twitter APIs into Ping’s interface design but clearly they prefer to be dictating terms and operating within walled gardens. A feature that Ping users will no doubt be clamoring for is a web-app version of the service. After all, what happens when wishing to access Ping from a computer, or mobile device, without the latest version of iTunes or none at all? Users would be faced with the seemingly arduous task of downloading, setting up and signing in. Way too much of a process for web surfers! In such a case services like Last.fm come up trumps allowing users to access the network through a number of platforms and interface designs. These range from web browsers, to mobile devices as well as stand-alone applications for Windows, Mac and Linux.

The Goldilocks Principle and usability testing

The “just right” idea lends itself very well to usability tests as a tool for iterating your interface designs.  Sorflaten asserts that the “just right” mindset frees designers from fear and judgments that can be hang-ups during the user interface design process.  “Abandon hope for a linear, premeditated path of reasoning to solutions” (humanfactors.com) during usability testing.  Instead, designers should let go of their unyielding, pre-conceived notions about how a design should look as an end product or what a problem solution set should be (in other words finality based on  the polar extremes), and just trust in the present process that unfolds during the usability test.  This mindset will enable designers to “test, iterate, and test until it’s just right” (humanfactors.com).

Balancing the present and the future

Staying in the present moment can often be a scary thing for designers—so much of a user interface design’s success hinges upon organization and good preparation, in other words, constantly looking towards and planning for the future.  Applying the Goldilocks principle will not  force designers to abandon planning and structure; when used properly, it can allow them to operate within a space of freedom and flexibility during the usability testing phase, fostering intuitive and free iterations that work in tandem with hypothesized problems and solutions .  Being mindful of both planning and the present process creates the sort of balance that defines the Goldilocks principle. It is what will ultimately make the user interface “just right.”

In case you are not familiar with the children’s story Goldilocks and the Three Bears it goes something like this: Goldilocks finds the three bears’ home abandoned and decides to go in and try out their beds and porridge.  There are three beds and three bowls of porridge and when she tries them they are either too hard or too cold, too soft or too hot, or just right.  So the whole message of the story is finding balance within polar extremes, finding what is “just right”.  Well this silly little story has engendered a scientific theory, the Goldilocks Principle, which can also be applied to user interface design according to John Sorflaten of Human Factors International (humanfactors.com).

The Goldilocks Principle

The Goldilocks Principle (also known as the Goldilocks Enigma) has its roots in science, specifically astrophysics.  Paul Davies, professor of physics at Arizona State University, coined the concept in his 2007 book “The Goldilocks Enigma: Why is the Universe Just Right for Life?”  In the book, Davies claims that certain universal fundamental physical constants are exactly in sync to make life on planet Earth possible. Thus, we have won a “cosmic jackpot,”— as Goldilocks would say, the conditions are “just right” for life.   This idea has spawned the Goldilocks Principle, which means “that something must fall within certain margins, as opposed to reaching extremes” (Wikipedia.com).  It is all about finding an equilibrium that avoids extremes.

Desirability and usability as a design team

According to John Soellner’s article “Design, Usability, Desirability, What’s The Difference?” desirability design is “about expanding on the idea of what human factors are” in order to better understand what drives users to employ interfaces based on their interest level and personal satisfaction.  It can be functional and emotional.  Functional desirability is almost interchangeable with usability in that it means users desire to use a site because it is usable and well organized.  Emotional desirability, although related to the subjective satisfaction which is a part of usability, breaks away from usability because it seeks to understand a user’s emotional reaction to the aesthetics of a user interface: the look, feel, and even the content.  Emotional desirability concerns itself with the intangibles and emotional human factors that Soellner refers to above.

Desirability works well in tandem with usability because it measures the intangible aspects of user experience such as fun and enjoyment, aspects that usability itself usually cannot address.  Desirability helps designers discern whether or not their user interface design is enticing enough for users to want to employ, reaching beyond whether or not it is easy and functional enough for users to want to use.  “Desirability design techniques supply the X Factor which motivates users to make usability matter” says Soellner.